TripAdvisor Reviews Minami Hikone Station Hotel

Travel Blogs from Hikone

... didn't spend much time there either. Then we went back home and collected Dad and Holly. Our next stop: Sanjusangen-do. This is an amazing Buddhist Temple hall holding 1000 life-sized 1000-armed Kannon's (the Buddhist goddess of mercy) that are all identical and neatly placed in rows. There is also 1 giant Kannon with 500 of the smaller Kannon's on each side. Each one actually only has 40 arms but in Buddhism that means ...

Today started with early ceremonies at the temple. First there was a prayer service at 7am, followed by a very interesting fire burning ceremony at a building up the street at 7:30am. Prior to the fire burning ceremony, we had written wishes for health and prosperity for our family and friends on wooden sticks, and gave them to the monk to burn at the ceremony. Hopefully our wishes will come true!

Jeff went to Hiroshima the next day while Todd and I chilled in the Imperial Palace park in Kyoto.

We visited the Fushimi InariShring the next day. It is the shrine with all the orange torii gates lined up. It is an awesome experience to walk through those and it goes on forever up the hill. We only saw a small part of it because we went in the evening. It is by the woods too, ...

... at the end! Your also not allowed to wear shoes inside any buildings except cafe's and none traditional restaurants, your given slippers and a shelf to leave your shoes on (unfortunately the Japanese don't cater to Joe's foot size). We walked to a recommended Japanese 'old school' diner bar and had some gorgeous rice dishes with beef and veg before walking the short distance to Toji Temple. This is the largest 5 story pagoda in Japan; again the grounds ...

... had to reach across my two other seat companions to achieve their goal.

The airport at Nagoya was quiet on Saturday night. I’d figured that our 747 with over 300 people aboard would cause chaos and long lines through customs. That was not the case. There were an abundance of uniformed, smiling personnel, ready to assist. I had to fill out additional paperwork as a first time ...